Kinh nghiệm biên giới

If the table legs are too short, you have to be creative, see the first photo.

After a good breakfast, we started. At first, there were about 90 km of four-lane country road in mixed weather. Then we went into the mountains. The Turkish/Bulgarian border mountains.

A very bad road, many different road surfaces, and rain. You never know how grippy the road is at the moment, or if one of the huge potholes is lurking in the next curve. So, riding sensibly and concentrated is called for.

The route was very beautiful, with proper forests on the left and right side of the road. And a lot of presence from the police and border guards, as it is an EU external border, which, as I learned last year, is often crossed by smugglers.

We reached the border with Turkey. Cutting the line with the motorcycle, as always, not a problem. No one gets upset. Unimaginable in Germany.

The clearance on the Bulgarian side went relatively quickly.

Then the Turkish side. Station 1, recording personal data, Station 2, recording vehicle and insurance data. Since my green card is not valid for Turkey, I had to push the motorcycle aside to take out border insurance at the insurance office.

It's not a problem per se, but the gentleman did not accept a card payment, only cash. And guess what, there was a currency exchange, but no ATM.

I was already about to drive back to the Bulgarian side when the insurance agent approached me again.

He had made a phone call and coincidentally, a friend with his taxi was at the border. He suggested that his friend advance the €100 for a one-month insurance and then drive me to the nearest ATM for €40. A rogue who thinks evil😅

What choice did I have? I agreed. €100 for insurance, I believe last year I paid a fraction of that.

Then it started, I won't write here how fast. In any case, I far exceeded the 80 km/h allowed for motorcycles. After a few kilometers, the taxi stopped next to another taxi. I was handed over to Taxi 2, and Taxi 1 drove back to the border.

The €40 for the taxi was justified because the next ATM was located in Kirklareli, 40 km away from the border.

Another advantage of the taxi, the taxi driver and the border guard seemed to know each other, so no luggage inspection took place.

After withdrawing my money from the ATM and paying the taxi driver, it was almost 6:00 pm. I didn't want to endure the 75 km to the next campsite, so I checked into a hotel.

Tomorrow we will continue towards the Black Sea coast, passing Istanbul to Asia.